Submission to the Northern Ireland Office from

The Children’s Law Centre regarding

Creating a Safer Northern Ireland through Partnership

Consultative Document

June 2002

Introduction

The Children’s Law Centre is a voluntary organisation that was established in 1997. It aims to help young people, their parents and professionals work with and understand the laws, which affect children. Although based in Belfast, the centre has a Northern Ireland wide remit.

Current priority areas of work include education and training, legal advice and research, all of which have a rights based approach as their starting point. In addition to working directly with young people, much work is also carried out with adults involved in children’s lives through mechanisms such as training, involvement in conferences, inter-agency work and responses to draft government policy and legislation.

The Children’s Law Centre is founded on the principles of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child and seeks to ensure that the equality provisions of the Northern Ireland Act 1998 which relate to children are complied with. We are also working to promote greater awareness among Public Authorities of the implication for them of next year’s incorporation into domestic legislation of the European Convention on Human Rights, with particular reference to children.

Responsibility for Implementing the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC)

In 1991 the UK government ratified the UNCRC. This means that it agreed that children and young people up to the age of 18 have certain rights, which government and its agents would uphold.

With the devolution of power to the Northern Ireland Assembly the duty to implement the UNCRC now lies with the Assembly. In 2004, when the third report to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child is due, the Assembly will be asked to provide an account as to how it has progressed with the Convention’s implementation.

Article 12 of the UNCRC states that children and young people have the right to be involved in decision-making.

The Children’s Law Centre welcomes the opportunity to make this submission to NIO on the Community Safety Strategy.

Before continuing we would like the following questions to be addressed:

1. Has the draft strategy been equality proofed and impact assessed?

2. How did the NIO consult with children and young people in relation to this policy, as it is obliged to do under S75 of the NI Act 1998?

The following remarks refer to specific aspects of the draft strategy.

The Definition of Community Safety

Article 19 of the UNCRC obliges the state and its agents to protect children and young people under the age of 18 from all forms of harm. When we consulted with young people on the issue of safety in their neighbourhoods they brought up many issues including feeling unsafe due to lack of safe places to play, lack of street lights, lack of pedestrian crossings, the perceived power of adults in general and members of paramilitary groups in particular, in their communities as well as feeling threatened by joyriders, drug users, those who use the parks to use solvents and to drink.

Although your list of key facts and action points on page 20 mentions some of these in relation to the threat to children's safety, the definition offered on p1 of the document focuses solely on crime, not on environmental or other factors associated with feeling safe or unsafe in one's community. This narrow definition is disappointing given the emphasis placed on inter-agency work contained in the document. Did you consult with young people in respect of the key facts and action points on page 20?

Children and Young People

The acknowledgement on p9 of the document that children and young people are most likely to be victims of crime is to be welcomed as is the statement on page 18 that under 18s do not make up the majority of 'young people' involved in crime. However, while these facts are stated, elsewhere in the document (on p22) young people ('hanging around') are deemed to be a social disorder problem. Furthermore, on p22 there is the stated intention of exploring the use of Anti-Social Behaviour Orders, which are currently in use in England and Wales, as a potential deterrent of such behaviour.

The use of such orders is a contravention of Article 15 of the UNCRC, which guarantees the right to freedom of association. Furthermore, although such orders are issued under civil courts, breaching of such orders is a criminal offence, which results in criminal prosecution - this is not consistent with the aim of preventing young people from entering the criminal justice system which you highlight as being the duty of the Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety on p24. Incidentally, Article 40 of the UNCRC places this duty on all government bodies and agents. Clearly, there is also a role for the Department of Education and the Department of Employment and Learning to be involved in the education and training of young people who are involved in the criminal justice system in order that they have sufficient opportunity to gain qualifications so that re-offending is less likely to occur.

Concluding Remarks

A copy of the Getting it Right? - an evaluation of the implementation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child in Northern Ireland - is enclosed for your information. Should you have any questions or require clarification on this submission, please do not hesitate to contact Teresa Geraghty on 028 90245704 or email teresageraghty@childrenslawcentre.org.